Sarah J. Maas's 'Energy Vortex': Why 2026 Is the Year of the Maasverse
April 23, 2026
Sarah J. Maas has a phrase for where she is right now creatively: an “energy vortex.” For readers, that turns out to mean one of the most stacked release calendars in the history of romantasy — and a year that’s going to require some calendar management.
Here’s what’s coming, and what you need to have read before October.
The News: Two ACOTAR Books in Three Months
The story Sarah J. Maas is currently writing grew — as her stories tend to do — into something far larger than a single volume. The manuscript passed 1,000 pages and kept going, until the only sensible thing to do was to split it into separate books.
The result:
A Court of Thorns and Roses #6 — October 27, 2026
A Court of Thorns and Roses #7 — January 12, 2027
Parts two and three of the same story, released roughly eleven weeks apart. Maas has described the scope as “really, really big,” which given that she’s the author who turned a planned trilogy into five books, and then apparently two more on top of that, carries genuine weight.
The title for Book 6 hasn’t been announced at time of writing, but pre-orders are live and the October date is confirmed.
What Else Is Happening in the Maasverse
The ACOTAR announcement isn’t the only item on the 2026 agenda.
Throne of Glass dramatized audio adaptations — The Throne of Glass Series is being adapted into a fully dramatized audio format. These aren’t standard audiobooks with a single narrator — they’re produced with full casts and sound design, offering a different way into the series for readers who already know it and a strong entry point for audio-first readers who haven’t tried it yet.
Crescent City — Maas’s third ongoing series (which follows Hunt Athalar and Bryce Quinlan across a contemporary fantasy world connected to both the Throne of Glass and ACOTAR universes) continues to sit in the background of any Maasverse timeline conversation. The inter-series connections, particularly in House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City #3, 2024), make the reading order question more complex for completionists.
How to Be Ready for October
The ACOTAR Series currently stands at five main novels plus the 2026 entry:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015)
- A Court of Mist and Fury (2016)
- A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017)
- A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018)
- A Court of Silver Flames (2021)
- ACOTAR 6 — October 27, 2026
If you’re starting from book one now, five novels across six months is comfortable pacing for most readers — and Maas’s books, whatever their page count, tend to move fast. The series is built around an accelerating emotional investment: readers who’ve found Books 1 and 2 a little slow almost universally say Books 3–5 were worth the setup.
Start with: A Court of Thorns and Roses — the 2015 debut that introduces Feyre Archeron and the world of Prythian. The first book is the lightest in tone; the series deepens considerably from Book 2 onward.
See the full ACOTAR Series reading order →
And If You Want to Go Deeper: Throne of Glass
The Throne of Glass Series is where Maas built the world that eventually connected to everything else. Seven novels following Celaena Sardothien — assassin, reluctant hero, one of the more compelling protagonists in the genre — across a story that expands from a single royal court to a continent-spanning war.
The Throne of Glass books are longer and more ambitious in scope than the ACOTAR series. They also established the Maasverse’s connective tissue: characters, locations, and lore from Throne of Glass thread into Crescent City in ways that reward readers who’ve done the full run.
With the dramatized audio adaptations arriving in 2026, this is a good year to either start or revisit the series.
Start with: Throne of Glass (2012) — the series opener, which begins as a contained story before revealing how large the world actually is.
See the full Throne of Glass Series reading order →
The Maasverse in 2026: A Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Ongoing | Throne of Glass dramatized audio adaptations |
| October 27, 2026 | ACOTAR Book 6 |
| January 12, 2027 | ACOTAR Book 7 |
The gap between Books 6 and 7 is roughly eleven weeks — short enough that readers who pace themselves carefully through the autumn could realistically have both in hand before the end of the 2026/27 winter. Given the format (one story split into parts), waiting to read them back-to-back will also be a legitimate strategy once January arrives.
Either way, October 27 is the date to have marked.
The complete Sarah J. Maas reading order — ACOTAR, Throne of Glass, and Crescent City, with the recommended sequencing for readers navigating all three — is at the author page.